Mutara Nebula

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In the fictional Star Trek universe, the Mutara Nebula was a nebula close (reachable in minutes under sublight speed) to the station Regula 1 (thus within the star system in which Regula 1 and the associated Regula planetoid were located). The nebula contained high levels of static discharge and consisted largely of ionized gases. The combined effect of this made a starship's sensors highly unreliable and shields inoperable when inside.

The Mutara Nebula was introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and serves as the climactic battleground between the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) commanded by James T. Kirk and the USS Reliant commanded by Khan Noonien Singh. The nebula's strong electromagnetic distortions made shielding on these older ships useless and also knocked out many sensors. It is presumed that when the Genesis Device went off inside the nebula the elements of the nebula were reorganized to constitute the Genesis Planet.

In reality, astronomical nebulae are extremely tenuous and would be unlikely to cause problems to any future starships passing through them.[1] They are only visible because they are so large - the Orion Nebula, for example, is 15 light years in size.